My original plan was to be completely raw for the entire month of March. Based on some advice here in the forum, I reconsidered and decided that maybe trying to go completely raw overnight instead of transitioning gradually might not be a good idea. (Thanks, guys!) Given that I'll have the stress of both changing jobs and moving during the month of March, it seems like a particularly bad time to also be dealing with intense & random detox symptoms.

So, I decided that "high raw" would be my goal for March. No particular percentage; I'm sure it will vary from day to day. I don't know what the guidelines are for what constitutes "high" raw and what doesn't, I'm mostly concerned with being substantially more raw than I've been in the past and improving as I go.

Basically, for the entire month I'm going to eat raw all day every day... plus I'm allowing myself one cooked meal or cooked item per day if I feel having one. So far, the transition has been easy and the detox has been mild.

Since I didn't start this blog at the beginning of the month, I'll update what's been happening so far:

Last Friday, I attended a Living on Live Food chef certification class. It was an extremely small class, so my instructor was able to do it as a totally hands-on class rather than a lecture and demonstration. We really had a lot of fun, I learned a bunch, and I also came home with some tasty treats. So yeah, I'm now an official raw food chef... at least, as much chefdom as one can acquire in 6 hours.

Tuesday, I got the "your application has been approved" phone call for my new apartment, and I pick up the keys next Tuesday. Yay!! I'll still be near Houston, but a bit north in a town (suburb) called The Woodlands. The area is way more bicycle-friendly than where I'm living now, so I'll probably be getting one soon after we move. I'll also be able to walk to the grocery store and for a lot of my other errands and won't have to drive nearly as much as I do now, which I'm happy about.

Yesterday, the raw cacao, blue agave and raw maca I ordered arrived. That's right, a whole POUND of raw maca! I haven't quite figured out what to do with them yet, but when I do... I'll post it. I have sampled a few of the cacao beans straight out of the bag with a little squirt of agave... by the third one, I figured out they were in a shell and they tasted much better after that.

Michelle wrote:... by the third one, I figured out they were in a shell and they tasted much better after that.

That sounds like something I would do! The first time I tried soaking/sprouting I put lentils in a sealed container with water in the fridge and ate them right out of the same water after a day or two. Had a bit of a tummy ache...

I also ate a lot more raw for a while before going 100%, and I have found the transition very easy as a result. Good luck!

"Look at your life, determine what is not in line with your heart, and make an honest effort to change it." - John Robbins

Yesterday, I can't really remember what I ate. I remember there was some raw zucchini "pasta" with raw marinara sauce, which was damn good. There was also a green smoothie. And a vegan tofu eggroll. (the eggroll was the only thing I had that wasn't raw) Aside from that, I think I just ate bananas and apples.

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I didn't feel like eating cooked food today, so today was a 99% raw day. Actually, I didn't even feel like eating much.

I had:
a banana
a few raw hazelnuts. Like 5. I think they'll taste better in something.
smoothie: water, spoonful of green powder, spoonful of maca powder, a couple strawberries, and a squirt of agave
salad: huge pile of greens with some random oil/vinegar/garlic/miso/herbs dressing I mixed up and hemp seeds sprinkled on top
strawberry stuff: I suppose I could call it a pudding, or I could call it single-serving crustless strawberry pie in a bowl. The texture was somewhere in-between. Pureed strawberries, vit C powder, psyllium husks, and a bit of agave, vanilla and nutmeg. (No, I don't measure anything.) It was rather tangy, if I make it again I should add a couple of dates or more agave.

Strawberries were 99cents/lb at HEB last night! Score!! I don't know if they were just overstocked or what, but two pounds came home with me.

Breakfast:
green smoothie with a couple of strawberries and blueberries thrown in

After breakfast:
Odwalla green superfood whatever-its-called juice at Starbucks. I really don't care for starbucks at all, but someone who wanted to interview me for a job wanted to meet there. I don't drink coffee and wasn't in the mood for tea, but figured if I was going to sit there for an hour, I needed to order something and went for the juice. I just realized - it's no longer raw juice after it has been pasteurized, is it?

Lunch:
The lunch buffet at Pepper Tree restaurant. The whole buffet, practically... I think I had four or five plates of food. Their menu has a couple of non-vegan items, but the buffet is all vegan. And all delicious. (The omnivorous friend who joined me there agrees.)

Evening snack:
A few dates. (The food, not the social encounter.)

Despite the questionable location, the interview went really well.. we ended up sitting and talking for about two hours. I was originally interviewing for a position as a massage therapist, but she hired me for that AND hired me to update their website AND is probably going to have me preparing veggie food and/or demonstrating raw food at her yoga retreats. Woohoo!

The last day or so, I've completely missed the mark on my raw goals. I forgot I had a couple of Amy's frozen vegan things in the freezer that needed to be consumed before we move... and some other stuff that needed to be finished before it spoiled. Oh well, back on track tomorrow.

However, I made a rather amazing mostly-raw chocolate shake tonight. Raw cacao, the contents (water and meat) of a young coconut, a banana, a few ice cubes, agave nectar, hemp seeds, hemp seed oil, vanilla extract, and cinnamon.

Michelle wrote:However, I made a rather amazing mostly-raw chocolate shake tonight. Raw cacao, the contents (water and meat) of a young coconut, a banana, a few ice cubes, agave nectar, hemp seeds, hemp seed oil, vanilla extract, and cinnamon.

Michelle wrote:However, I made a rather amazing mostly-raw chocolate shake tonight. Raw cacao, the contents (water and meat) of a young coconut, a banana, a few ice cubes, agave nectar, hemp seeds, hemp seed oil, vanilla extract, and cinnamon.

It's called Chachahamabra in Arabic and it's used as a discipline method for children in large parts of inner Uzbekistan. Much like the boogie man in the US, except this one is real.

Michelle wrote:However, I made a rather amazing mostly-raw chocolate shake tonight. Raw cacao, the contents (water and meat) of a young coconut, a banana, a few ice cubes, agave nectar, hemp seeds, hemp seed oil, vanilla extract, and cinnamon.

It's called Chachahamabra in Arabic and it's used as a discipline method for children in large parts of inner Uzbekistan. Much like the boogie man in the US, except this one is real.

I know it sounds like an evil concoction, but it really was yummy! I swear!

Oh.. I didn't know I could eat the meat of a young coconut. I've been told to consume the water only...

Which remind me of a bloody cold day in Melbs some time ago when I had FINALLY found a place to get young coc's...and I had my first experience with one. I'm glad I got out of it intact. They are viscous slippery little suckers. Rock hard too. At least if you try to manage it with a budget knife with the phrase "I'm the MASTER" running on repeat in yer brains..

I just wanted to know what it looked like on the inside...
(which I still don't know)

Sort of. Lots of stuff going on, lots of big changes, and lots of chaos. I'm still moving towards raw, but instead of being on the "highway to raw" it's more like I'm on the little windy bike path that follows alongside the highway. And I'm walking.

I busted a knife yesterday. The HEB (grocery store) by where I live has a sign that says "young coconuts" but I've yet to actually see any in stock. But they did have these weird white coconuts that were all fuzzy on the outside, like a brown coconut. So, for lack of a better plan, I decided to take one home and see what was in it. When I tried to bust it open with the knife and technique I use for the young coconuts, it didn't work. And I broke the knife. BAD IDEA! In fact, there is still a big chunk of my knife embedded in that stupid coconut. For some reason, my tools are still at my old place, so I can't just bust it with a hammer. For several minutes, I considered dropping it off my 3rd story balcony and collecting the remains from the sidewalk below, but for the sake of my downstairs neighbor's I abandoned that idea. So much for my spinach/cilantro/coconut soup.

LizWorld wrote:Oh.. I didn't know I could eat the meat of a young coconut. I've been told to consume the water only...

Which remind me of a bloody cold day in Melbs some time ago when I had FINALLY found a place to get young coc's...and I had my first experience with one. I'm glad I got out of it intact. They are viscous slippery little suckers. Rock hard too. At least if you try to manage it with a budget knife with the phrase "I'm the MASTER" running on repeat in yer brains..

That makes an interesting mental picture! Sounds about like my first experience, except instead of your "I'm the Master" mantra, I had a nonstop stream of obscenities coming out of my mouth. And I never did quite get into that first one, either...

You can eat the meat and the water from a young coconut. I've had a couple that were so young, it was mostly water inside... that was weird. The meat is good for making raw puddings or for making smoothies or soups nice and creamy. Or for just stuffing in your face - it's good like that too.